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HARPER'S  WEEKLY 


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CHARLES  E.HUGHES 

SPEAKS  FORTHE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY 

IN  THIS  NUMBER 


PRICE  1O  CENTS 


Two  Poems  by  ROBERT  FROST 


THE      TELEPHONE 


¥"  T  ~T  HEN  I  was  just  as  far  as  I  could  walk 

I  l\  /    From  here  today, 

f    f        There  was  an  hour 

All  still 

When  leaning  with  my  head  against  a  flower 

I  heard  you  talk. 

Don't  say  I  didn't,  for  I  heard  you  say — 

You  spoke  from  that  flower  on  the  window  sill — 

Do  you  remember  what  it  was  you  said? 

First  tell  me  what  it  was  you  thought  you  heard. , 


Having  found  the  flower  and  driven  a  bee  away 

I  leaned  my  head, 

And  holding  by  the  stalk, 

I  listened  and  I  thought  I  caught  the  word — 

What  was  it?    Did  you  call  me  by  my  name? 

Or  did  you  say — 

Some  one  said  "Come" — I  heard  it  as  I  bowed. 

I  may  have  thought  as  much,  but  not  aloud. 
Well,  so  I  came. 


THE     GUM-GATHERER 


rFIERE  overtook  me  and  drew  me  in 
To  his  down-hill,  early-morning  stride, 
And  he  set  me  five  miles  on  my  road 
Better  than  if  he  had  had  me  ride, 
A  man  with  a  swinging  bag  for  load 
And  half  the  bag  wound  round  his  hand. 
We  talked  like  barking  above  the  din 
Of  water  we  walked  along  beside. 
And  for  my  telling  him  where  I'd  been 
And  where  I  lived  in  mountain  land 
To  be  coming  home  the  way  I  was, 
He  told  me  a  little  about  himself. 
He  came  from  higher  up  in  the  pass 
Where  the  grist  of  the  new-beginning  brooks 
Is  blocks  split  off  the  mountain  mass — 
And  hopeless  grist  enough  it  looks 
Ever  to  grind  to  soil  for  grass. 
(  The  way  it  is  will  do  for  moss.) 
There  he  had  built  his  stolen  shack. 
It  had  to  be  a  stolen  shack 


Because  of  the  fears  of  fire  and  loss 
That  trouble  the  sleep  of  lumber  folk — 
Visions  of  half  the  world  burned  black 
And  the  sun  shrunken  yellow  in  smoke. 
We  know  who  when  they  come  to  town 
Bring  berries  under  the  wagon  seat, 
Or  a  basket  of  eggs  between  their  feet; 
What  this  man  brought  in  a  cotton  sack 
Was  gum,  the  gum  of  the  mountain  spruce. 
He  showed  me  lumps  of  the  scented  stuff 
Like  uncut  jewels,  dull  and  rough, 
It  comes  to  market  golden  brown; 
But  turns  to  pink  between  the  teeth. 

I  told  him  this  is  a  pleasant  life 
To  set  your  breast  to  the  bark  of  trees, 
That  all  your  days  are  dim  beneath, 
And  reaching  up  with  a  little  knife, 
To  loose  the  resin  and  take  it  down 
And  bring  it  to  market  when  you  please. 


SCHOOLMASTER  TO  HALF  A  MILLION 

WHAT  SUPERINTENDENT  MAXWELL,  OF  NEW  YORK,  THINKS  OF  AMERICAN  SCHOOLS 

BY  CHARLES  PHILLIPS  COOPER 


FOR  the  first  time  in  nearly 
thirty-five  years  the  Old  Lion 
of  the  great  public  school  sys- 
tem of  New  York  City  is  forced  to 
take  rest.  It  was  in  1882  that  Will- 
iam Henry  Maxwell  became  assist- 
ant superintendent  of  the  schools  of 
Brooklyn,  and  from  that  day  he  has 
been  a  force  in  the  educational  af- 
fairs first  of  the  city  and  later  of  the 
nation.  In  due  course  he  became  the 
head  of  the  schools  of  Brooklyn,  and 
in  1898,  when  after  consolidation 
Greater  New  York  wished  to  revise 
its  cumbersome  old  system  and  join 
the  modern  educational  movement,  it 
selected  Doctor  Maxwell  as  its  first 
superintendent  of  schools.  He  has 
held  the  office  ever  since. 

Recently  the  Board  of  Education 
granted  Doctor  Maxwell  a  leave  of 
absence  at  full  pay  of  $10,000  a  year. 

70 


This  leave  of  absence  was  voted  after 
the  board,  by  a  vote  of  31  out  of  a 
possible  40,  had  reflected  Doctor 
Maxwell  to  the  superintendency  for  a 
full  term  of  six  years. 

It  is  a  big  job.  On  every  school 
day  of  this  year  of  1916  more  than 
600,000  children  of  all  ages  storm  the 
schoolhouses  that  Father  Knicker- 
bocker supplies.  This  school  army 
would  make  six  cities  of  the  size  of 
Albany;  would  almost  duplicate  Bos- 
ton; would  make  four  cities  of  the 
size  of  Omaha,  and  two  of  the  popu- 
lation of  Minneapolis.  In  it  lies  the 
future  of  the  greatest  city  of  Amer- 
ica. 

A  glance  at  the  material  side  for 
a  moment  will  show  something  of  the 
magnitude  of  the  problem  that  the 
school  authorities  of  New  York  City 
puzzle  over.  The  budget  appropria- 


tion of  the  department  of  education 
for  1915  was  $39,840,349,  of  which 
$32,609,695  constituted  the  general 
school  fund  for  teachers'  salaries. 
For  1916  the  appropriation  is  $36,- 
865,981. 

I  asked  Doctor  Maxwell  what  in 
his  long  career  made  him  most 
proud. 

"I  believe  I  can  claim  the  credit," 
he  said,  "of  taking  the  appointment 
of  teachers  out  of  the  hands  of  poli- 
ticians. I  believe  that  is  the  best 
thing  I  have  ever  done,  and  I  am 
prouder  of  it  than  of  any  other  one 
achievement.  You  remember  how  it 
was  in  the  old  days,  when  every 
grade  teacher  had  a  politician  behind 
her.  It  was  bad  for  the  teacher  and 
very  bad  for  the  schools.  I  originated 
the  legislation  which  demanded  cer- 
tain training  in  the  case  of  all  the 


Be  Sure  of  the  Lath! 

— and  the  Stucco  Will 
Take  Care  of  Itself 

OTUCCO   construction   is   just  as    per- 
^  manent    as    the    base  on  which  it  is 
laid — no  more  so.     That  is  why  it  is  eco 
nomical  and  sensible  to  use  lath  of  metal. 

Xno-fturn 

Expanded  Metal  Lath 

is  the  ideal  metal  lath  for  interior  plastering  and  stucco 
work,  because  it  is  made  with  a  mesh  that  clinches  every 
inch  of  plaster  uniformly  and  permanently.  Ask  your 
architect. 

This  is  only  one  of  the  reasons  why  you  should  specify 
"Kno-Burn"  in  your  new  house.  You  will  find  a  dozen 
others  as  well  as  a  world  of  vital  building  information  in 
"Practical  Homebuilding,"  a  manual  for  home  builders 
that  we  will  gladly  send  you  on  request. 


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North   Western   Expanded   Metal 

Manufacturers  All  Types  of  Expanded  Metals 
978  Old  Colony  Building  Chicago,  Illinois 


